have got RANT and was planning on getting the Elite Pilot Core thing as couple of people at my club recommended it. I see its got some bad press above from Bose-x who always seems to give good advice so maybe i'll have a rethink!
Interesting. I've been using Elite for all my instrument, commercial training and sim checks for years. I think it is a brilliant piece of software and much more suitable for the job than X-plane of MSFS (which I had been using for much longer). The performance is to book numbers and the avionics are fully simulated allowing you to practice precise procedure and help form good habits. Failures can be made random and insidious to the extent that cross checks mean something. In particular I find it the most ergonomic of the competition. It is also much easier to set and configure precise scenarios that for particular training wants.
It isn't cheap, but at least a bottom of the range cheapo PC will run it smoothly probably more than offsetting the software cost.
I would suggest you get the demo. To get the most out of the demo you need to "freeze" it then you can configure failures, position the aircraft whatever without running out of time.